During the ongoing 2024 T20 World Cup, Sri Lanka Sports Minister Harin Fernando defended Wanindu Hasaranga from criticism. Fernando supported the squad despite losing to South Africa and Bangladesh by six and two wickets. Their most recent encounter against lower-ranked Nepal was called off due to weather resulting in both sides receiving one point each.
Elimination is knocking on the door for team SL in the mega ICC event. The team can maximum score three points given their win against Netherlands in their very last match of the group stage.
What Harin Fernando Said
NewsWireLK shared on their X handle Fernando’s sarcastic comment on the team’s criticism. It said,
“There are players and journalists who are more capable than Wanindu on social media.”
The Islanders were bowled out for 77 against the Proteas in their first 720 World Cup match. They subsequently scored only 124/9 against Bangladesh in their second group-stage encounter.
Maheesh Theekshana Laments Sri Lanka’s T20 World Cup Woes
SL player Maheesh Theekshana showed his disappointment with the team being almost out of the race for Super 8s in the ongoing T20 WC. After the abandoned match against Nepal, he spoke to reporters, stating,
“Everything went wrong this year. We didn’t bat well and we didn’t assess the conditions really well and our plans, everything went wrong. And I think as a team right now, it’s not going to be easy for the next game but still, I think when we look at the last two games that we played, we didn’t play well. We didn’t play the best cricket that we had,”
“So, I think we didn’t earn the spot – the way we played in the first two games. I don’t think we earned the spot for the Super 8 but still, we have one game left, so we’ll try to do our best,”
SL team also had a very disappointing World Cup in 2023, winning only two from nine matches.